On this day...

On this day 8 years ago....


We were married...
by my father and in front of our family and friends in my parents house.


My Uncle Rusty walked me down the aisle..

My friend Devin made his own costume..

I made my nieces costume (along with 6 others, 'cause that's how I roll)...

Devin made this beautiful cake (or is that Boo-tiful?)

And we lived happily ever after...:)

**I know I showed some pictures of our wedding last year but....

Halloween from 1984-2008

Halloween through the years....

Above: 2008

2007. Me as a magic 8 ball (I was 7 months pregnant with Ava so we didn't get in to Halloween that year)

2006

No pictures from 2003 as we had moved to Germany about a week before Halloween.

2002 Me and my sister Julia. Jon was in Korea so I flew to my sisters with two suitcases packed with Halloween decorations so we could have a proper party!

(The pictures from 2001 will be posted tomorrow)

That's Jon's niece, Bird, below. Too many coma's?

2000 (These and the ones below were scanned in from my scrapbook.

No digital camera back then!)

1996 Boom Boom Mancini (it was freezing so I had to wear tights with my boxer costume). We were living with Jon's mom and had a Halloween party there. We drank cool-aid with vodka. I squint really bad when I get really loaded...

I have no pictures of Halloween before 1984:(

Stick a fork in me 'cause I'm done!

I'm done with my costume!

I made Corinnea new tags for her key fobs. I thought they should show what they are for ..I hope she likes them.

Ava, Emily, Ethan and Nicolas at the Mom & Tots Halloween Party (they had their costumes on but took them off to paint) at the store Monday. They painted pumpkins, made caramel apples and marshmallow/white choco chip ghosts.

I rearranged the living room. It's not finished but I LOOOVE it! I moved everything from the wall with the big clock on it to the other wall. I just stuck the pictures and clock on existing hooks for now but later I'll arrange them better. After let the girls out of there room to see it, Ava found a catalog and tore it up. Then pulled out toys from the bins and destroyed the place. All in about 30 minutes.

The above are invitations my friend Lisa made for her sons birthday party.

They are genius! I looove them.

Mary Jane Stocking

A new pattern I got recently!

I'm going to make a few and sell them in the store and at the Art & Espresso event.

The shoe is wool felt and the lining and stripe fabric is cotton.

A present from Katelyn! I added this mini quilt to my others in the bathroom but I'm running out of room. I had to put hers on the side for now.

Up close ...this block is a Spider Web block and done in some of my favorite fabrics. Thanks Katelyn, I ADORE it!

Two more birthday gifts. Six bottles of Bath & Body Works Pink Grapefruit body wash.

I love this stuff! Jon uses it too:) Thanks Aunt Karen!

And two key chains from Jenny B. The pictures are from our trip to London. The top one is of us in the London Bridge Experience. This is where we adhered ourselves to the guy in front of us while walking through the very scary haunted tombs. And the bottom one is in front of Westminster Abbey where "somebody got yelled at for taking pictures inside...". I love these reminders of a very happy time with my BFF. Thanks Jenny Bean:) Miss you!

I got this shelf at the thrift store for $5!!! It looks just like the ones I have been wanting (but they won't ship this size here) from Pottery Barn Kids. I had also looked at something similar at Ikea. Five dollars! Score! My goal is someday to line one wall with shelves like this, about 2 feet from the ceiling. On this shelf are some items I don't want the girls to touch. One being the book below from my childhood.

I loved this book!

I don't have much from when I was younger but I do have this and my beloved Drowsy Doll (you can see her on a doll stand in the upper right hand corner of the shelf picture). She is sooo beat up. Fingers missing and hair chopped. I think she even has "Jenny" written on the back of her neck.

Emily & Ava.

Ava with eggs in her mouth. Right after this she blew a raspberry in to the dishwasher spraying eggs all over the clean dishes. Loverly. I put the side view picture of her because of her hair!! So weird since Emily was lacking in the hair department till she was 2.

Which one isn't made like the others?

Can you find the felted pumpkin amoungst the real ones? Or is it a gourd? I'm not sure what you call that.

Isn't it purty? Corinnea gave it to me for my b-day. I had eye-balled it at the German felt store we went to. Corinnea bought it but I thought for herself or her sister but NOOOO! It was for me:) The lady who owns the felt store felts all the stuff there. She had gourds, pumpkins, vegetables and lots of other stuff. They are all very realistic looking.

Along with this bag she made. I loooove it! Thanks Corinnea:)

I've been making these half eaten gingerbread men ornaments for the Art & Espresso in November (I'll post the details on the event later). I am taking pre orders though:) But I have to worn..they aren't cheap. They are made with 100% wool felt, hand embroidered/sewn and machine sewn.

We're ready for Halloween. Have been since the 1st but I forgot to post pics till now. These silhouettes are Martha Stewart (pre jail) when she had her very cool website. Not the one she has now. It's not the same. She had a catalog and her stuff was soooo cool. I guess I'm glad the site is no more because I gots lotso stuff from there:)

And below is a new item we have at the store to hold bobbins. Corinnea ordered it and I'm so glad she did. It's really cool.

dust on my shelf..

That's all..

Picture Wreath

A picture wreath. The idea was from Parents Magazine. I had Corinnea cut me a 12" circle from mat board (but you can use poster board too. I was going to cut to circles from poster board and glue them together but did the mat board instead). I used a (approximately) 2.5" scallop punch and a 2" circle punch. I printed out a couple of pages of black and white pictures from the program Digital image pro. I just selected multiple photos and chose to print 9 wallet sized photos to a page. I used a clear overlay (scrapbook paper that's clear) for the inner circle and glued the silver letters to it so appears to float. Thanks Lizy and Mary for helping with this!

And here is another felt garland I'm working on.. All are from our die-cut machine. I should scan them in so anyone reading this who wants to make one but doesn't have access to our machine can print the templates out and make them.

This is my present from Jon. A new camera! Just like this one and bought because I saw hers. I had a tiny instant camera but they stopped making the film for it (if you've ever been to my house, and seen my refrigerator filled with these little 1.5"x1" photos you'll know what I'm talking about). SO I was so happy to see something similar! These photos are credit card size. The pics below were test runs. The one of Emily's feet was from hitting the button on accident and the one of Ava, she moved.

Isn't it cute?

Look what Lizy made me?? Two felt mushrooms. I LOOOVE them!! The tiny one hanging next to them is from Jessica and the mushroom person is from Jenny B.

I am loved...

Today is my birthday!

The above mushroom ornament and Mushroom smoker are from Mary A. She knows me sooo well! Thank you Mary:) I LOOOOVE them!

The above Black Apple booty is from my friend Jocelyn.

We have been friends for about 20 years. I met her in 11th grade or was it 12th?

Close up of the gorgeous necklace. I also wore it to work and modeled it and one of the pins. Thanks Jocelyn:) You also know me so well.

The stuff below is from my sister. I wanted new oven mitts baaad! I took a picture of the new and the old. And that old one is actually just washed. The other one i burned by throwing it on a hot burner. She sent me Chocolate Macadamia Coffee, a ceramic Starbucks travel mug, Chocolate Chip waffle mix from Williams Sonoma, the oven mitts and the coolest card ever! Totally appropriate since we're a converse wearing family:) Everything I wanted. it's like I made a list for her but I didn't (except for the mitts. I did tell her I needed new ones)!

The Pottery Barn Kids Halloween Advent Calendar is from my parents. How cool is that??

The Merlottes shirt is from Mary H. I actually looked at buying one a while ago so I'm glad I didn't! For those that don't know, this is from the show True Blood and Merlotte's is where Sookie works. My sister just told me that she's going to be Sookie and her husband is going to be Eric for Halloween. She'll wear Sookie's bar outfit. I can't wait to see that! Thank you Mary. I LOOOVE it!

Mary A. Made me cupcakes. She made special ones just for me that are with peanut butter frosting. Heaven. And the Gnomes...so stinkn cute! I forgot to ask Corinnea if they freaked her out...

My Gingerbread Garland done and hanging in the store.

I made these hanging bags for the store to hold fat quarter bundles.

I had a really really good day:)